Saturday, September 20, 2008

Down in the Valley

13 comments:

Anonymous
said...

AMHERST - A University of Massachusetts student faces criminal charges for allegedly causing $600 in damage at the Emily Dickinson Museum after attempting to force his way into the building in the early morning hours of Sept. 5. Police say he was very drunk at the time.

There are 25,000 students at UMass and one creep wasn't even able to force his way into a 19th Century building. This is called "statistically insignificant." Now if there happened to be, say, ten thousand UMass students breaking into buildings, that would be different.

No, it is called bigotry and irrational prejudice. One black man named Willie Horton is a rapist & murderer. The fact that he is an evil man is beyond doubt -- but it does not logically follow that all black males are rapists & murderers.

One attempted B&E/Night is what ONE MAN did - to make his primary identity that of a UM student is to make Horton's primary identity AfroAmerican.

It is the same logical fallacy as saying that since most MVA fatalities involve licensed drivers operating registered vehicles, drivers' licenses and license plates *cause* accidents.

Statistically significant has a significant meaning. Think in terms of percentage of the population, in this case n=25,000. Or think like this - while being eaten by a bear is significant to the victim, we aren't going to go exterminate the bears nationwide....

Please show Ed how to start his own blog. The main idea can be about how anyone who refers to a Umass student and a crime in a sentence must be a bigot, comparable to a racist bigot, like some guy the Klu Klux Klan.

Put Ed's blog on on your blog roll so we can find it and join in the discussion.

I suggest this because Ed's pet project of ridding Amherst of anti-Umass student bigotry is a cause that deserves its own platform.

Ed,

Since the prevalence of this anti-Umass student bigotry is so far reaching, there must be a word (like n*gger, cr*cker, sp*c,) that bigoted Amherst locals use. Tell me so I can spot the bigots and shame them.

As far as I am concerned, I make no distinction between his attending UMass or living in subsidized housing (as at least two selectboard candidates do) or having red hair or black skin or blue eyes.

There was a time in this country when individuals were held personally accountable for their own personal actions. UMass didn't break into that building, one specific young man did.

It is like saying that because one police officer did something criminal, every cop is a crook. The Boston PD convicted a half dozen of dealing drugs, does that mean that all the APD officers deal drugs?

OF COURSE NOT! And this is a fair analogy because the number of sworn officers in the Commonwealth is probably smaller than the number of UM students -- in both cases it is statistically insignificant.

Before you go off on your holier than thou attitude yet again, have you paused to think that there was a reason no name was given?

I'd also point out that if someone put together statistics of local incidents involving police than UMASS would have a significant number above Amherst and Hampshire, even if you factored it so populations equaled out i.e. 1 UMASS student = 100 Amherst students or whatever.

I get so tired of people in this town standing up and saying "oh whoa is me, we abuse these students so much, you evil towns people just think they are hooligans and punks, you don't stop to see that they are all warm hearted and cuddly."

Give me a break, I go to UMASS and I am a life long Amherst resident. Many of the students here are good people and I have a lot of friends, but even many of my friends act like morons and jerks quite a bit of the time. Most stereotypes are based on some facutal evidence. The sterotype that says students cause a lot of the trouble around here exists, BECAUSE students cause a lot of the trouble around here.